Mass suicide in the Politburo, Hu Jintao’s original speech, and other stories that make us rethink China coverage

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Incisive, attuned to the cultural and political context of China… and completely fictional. Since its founding in 2010, the satirical news site China Daily Show (CDS) has become an institution among English-speaking foreigners in China.

CDS covers regular news like the end of the 18th party congress on Nov. 14 and the country’s once-in-a-decade leadership change with both absurd and sometimes disturbing fake stories. Its headline article today reports in graphic detail how China’s Politburo committed ritual suicide. Another claims outgoing President Hu Jintao originally planned an inspirational, “potentially seismic” speech for the first day of the congress. After leaving the speech in the car, Hu was forced to deliver the 101 minute work report that the world saw instead.

The paper also pokes fun at what it calls “self-important foreign voices.” It published a raucous but telling “Dear Zhang” letter from a fictional foreigner who has decided to “break up with a China,” a week after a British businessman published a lengthy editorial on why he was leaving China in the UK’s Prospect magazine.

CDS’ Chinese name, 狂人日报, translates to “Madman Daily,” using characters from the title of the famous short story “Diary of a Madman,” 狂人日记, by Chinese writer Lu Xun. The story follows a man paranoid that his family and fellow villagers are cannibals. Considered to be a criticism of feudalism and traditional Chinese values like filial piety, the story formed a core part of China’s new culture movement that in part encouraged young people to think for themselves.

Although most readers easily catch on to CDS’s humor, likening the site to the Onion (CDS’s creator, allegedly an anonymous British expat, compares the publication with British magazine Private Eye), the humor is inevitably lost on some. One commentator responded to the story on the fictitious Beijing bureau chief saying, “This guy sounds like an idiot, no wonder he works for an American newspaper.”